Gardeners World

[Houseplanter]

Is it me or is this way past its best.

I want to know how to DO things.. what to plant, where, when. How to propagate.

Monty we don't have gardens big enough to leave to go wild and mow a path through..

I don't want to see endless videos of other peoples gardens either.

I was watching it tonight, slightly bored. Then we got to the bit when we were introduced to someone's 5 acre garden.

Just let that sink in for a while. Just how many people in the UK own 5 acres of land devoted to a garden - one or two thousand out of a population of 67,000,000?

How on earth do the BBC think this is relevant to their viewers?

I enjoyed that section and I've only a very small patch.

Was that the writer with the farm, the stately home type garden that Toby looked around, or the woman with her Geums?

Either way, it always reminds me of Masterchef circa 1990 with Loyd Grossman, and the people who had shot their own pheasants on their vast acreage.

<looks at slightly waning tulips and under performing camelia, and gets pissed off>

I need to win the lottery.

I liked seeing the geums, but I wish they'd put the name of each variety on the screen as they showed them, so if you like one you know what to buy.

I’ve just found this thread and have been thinking the same as all of you since this series started. I’ve watched GW for decades and I loved the Geoff Hamilton days with his ballcocks and pretend rocks. He was always showing us how to make something.

I used to really like Monty but nowadays he seems so out of touch, and I have no idea who they think their audience is. It’s all too ‘lifestyle’ in £m acreage. I did like Geum Woman yesterday though.

I am an Adam Frost fan, I hope he is going to take over. He gives good practical tips and doesn't have a garden the size of Norfolk.

I used to watch Beechgrove, but I am on the south coast so I am about a month ahead of them weatherwise. I should probably start watching again though.

Ah, Beechgrove is perfect for me given I'm in that area.

I haven't watched Gardener's World for very long I have to admit but I don't mind the content even if some of it is a bit out of my league in terms of garden size and finances. I'm picking up tips but am such a beginner I appreciate that more experienced gardeners might find it less useful.

Anyway I've plants ready to go into my bare garden so best get cracking!

Ah, Beechgrove is perfect for me given I'm in that area.
I suppose that we all need to get a bit cleverer. Since the advice is repetitive and lots of old programmes are on i-player perhaps we should be replaying Beechgrove May 2023, 2022, etc in Apr 2024 and getting our tips that way.

I might just do this!

Today we bodged a net frame to cover our beetroot seedlings. I think the trouble is that I just use Youtube for that sort of content now. What you dont get on Youtube that much is lovely new variety and beautifully shot borders. But then the only time they tell us about new varieties and the most fashionable plants is at flower show time of year.

I always find the jobs for the weekend useful
it would be an interesting you tube video to collate them over a few series for each week of the year

Anyone watching tonight?

Here we are with Adam Clayton's 17 acre, 4000 tree garden. Don't suppose he has rats in the toilet...😂

Indeed @BatteryPoweredPeacock ; not even a garden we could visit if we wanted to!

It's been on here but tbh I couldn't say what was included after the lovely tulips.. I was bored and mentally switched off

Says it all really.

I admit I’m conflicted.

I love GW but I’ve been gardening long enough that I’m bored by the annual cycle of “what to do” stuff because I’ve heard it twenty times before. I’m happy with the films of people’s gardens when they’ve been properly shot by the GW crew (like last week’s geum collection) but the wonky clips badly filmed on smartphones, not so much.

I agree they used to be much better at providing on-screen information about the plants featured.

Carol Klein’s instructions on how to propagate deserve much more air time.

But ... but ... but

there was advice on lawns!!!! When did we last have that?

We've got grass but we haven't got a lawn - our garden used to be a sheep field - so the grass pretty much does what it wants!

The tulips were lovely, but of course they were, that's what a team of gardeners can achieve. It really is 80% a magazine type programme now isn't it, to browse through thinking "that looks lovely but is meaningless in terms of my own garden". I liked Jim, he was a proper (bonkers) gardener with a greenhouse I could identify with.

I was pleased to see we were back with Adam next week. Last week I bought one of his books, I didn't know much about his earlier career and was amazed to see (I shouldn't have been) that when he was 21 he started working at Barnsdale with Geoff, and stayed there till Geoff died. He really has a Geoff vibe about him.

I totally agree about badly filmed viewers gardens. It made sense when they were scrabbling for content during lockdown, but I'm completely uninterested.

I totally agree about badly filmed viewers gardens. It made sense when they were scrabbling for content during lockdown, but I'm completely uninterested. Even worse when there is an accompanying sob story

Do you think it’s become like this with the permanent move from a 30 minute to 60 minute weekly show though?

2 massive gardens last night, although the Arundel castle garden was showing it’s current attraction, which we can go and see and did also contain lots of really useful information about tulips. But I could not have been less interested in the rock star and his garden. I loved the Bristol garden, wish I lived near enough to benefit from his bounty, a lovely man like him tried to show me how to grow chrysanthemums, but I killed them in the first winter . I liked Carols bit.

Yes I was thinking the same. I was thrilled when it switched to 60 minutes but I'm not sure it was really a positive.

I think it would be way too short at 30 minutes. I enjoyed this weeks. It was a good balance of showing and teaching.

We hardly watch it at all now. Turned it on the other day and Monty was laying turf.

So he’s standing there prodding his perfectly prepped loamy soil (unachievable for most without his soil or team doing the hard digging) , rakes it a bit, getting soil on some flagstones that you just know a lackey will be sweeping up with a dustpan as soon as the camera’s off, jumps on it a bit and then plonks turf on top.

That’s an item? Jesus wept.

I second seeing items on dealing with issues: I’d be interested in home made non chemical solutions for treating eg powdery mildew. Watching how to make and apply them. As pp said, how to identify a rambler vs a climber and watching when and how to prune.

I am not a Monty fan - much prefer Frances & Adam. And love the viewer’s gardens.

Monty has a lot of roses and used to show how to prune them but they haven't featured for a while.

I usually like Carol's sections. I was thinking she must be about 70 now, I googled and she's 78! She's pretty amazing.

I enjoyed the 19th April programme more than usual.

Monty will probably do next year and call it a day , I wondered whether that was behind his decision to just have hardy plants rather than all of the work of bringing plants in over the winter